Aargh. I liveblogged this thing for AOL tonight. I already feel like I have a hangover.
Some thoughts on this. I expected to be angry if Pitt lost regardless of how they played. Can’t have them losing 2 in a row on the road or otherwise. That said, I’m disappointed in the loss but not in the effort and the way they played.
After the Wisconsin game, everyone was upset about the effort, the lack of focus and simply looking like they were coasting. That wasn’t happening in this game. Overall, the energy level was just much higher. Pitt was diving to the floor, getting after things.
Sam Young finally started looking like his explosiveness was returning. Unfortunately, along with the explosiveness, so was some of the mindlock silly fouls from last year.
Oklahoma State is a very good team. They impressed me. Neither team was able to impose their style for the whole game. Only spurts. Both Pitt and OSU had moments where they were playing their game, and there were other points where they found themselves in an unfamiliar style. As you would expect, the teams, despite different styles played a very even game.
Mario Boggan is a great undersized college forward. His game was the kind we used to admire from Chevy Troutman, outfighting the big trees underneath and getting the ball. Only Boggan can hit FTs. Boggan also did a great job of bringing Gray way out from under the hoop when Pitt was on defense. It is something Pitt has to adjust to, because teams will keep doing it — if they have any sense. With Gray away from under the basket, the Panthers are not a tremendous rebounding team inside. You wonder why Pitt was so outrebounded on the boards, that has a lot to do with it. Even if Gray isn’t grabbing the board, he’s clogging things up to give the other players a chance. It was a subtle adjustment OSU made early in the game. Gray grabbed 4 in the first few minutes of the game, then only a half-dozen or so after that.
I don’t know what has happened to Kendall. He is just playing without any confidence. Everytime he takes a shot, I don’t think even he knows if it will go down. I really thought when he hit his first jumper in the game things would go his way, but he is just looks lost out there. It reminds me of his sophomore year where he started breaking out, then he started missing some shots and his confidence disappeared.
Antonio Graves made a big mistake when he tried to foul and grabbed the guy around the neck/shoulder. Even if Eaton hadn’t gone down, that was too obvious a call not to make. It marred an otherwise effective game, even going 5-7 on FTs.
If Mike Cook could play defense, he’d be a candidate for an All-American.
More later when a more accurate box score comes out. Stats like rebounding, TOs, assists and such are notoriously unreliable immediately after a game.
BTW, agree with the intentional call at the end of the game.
PITT’s a little through the first quarter of the season and guys are already writing them off – without the main conference play even happening yet. This is what comes from even dreaming of a National Championship instead of grounding expectations in reality. Polls, especially pre-season polls, mean nothing really, and even less in BB than in a 12 game FB season. Aren’t they 7-2 at this point with both losses on the road to top 20 teams? There is nothing wrong with that at all.
I’ve noticed that in both BB and FB the head coaches have been very non-committal with what they have said they expect from their teams. Maybe that’s what is taught in Head Coaching 101, but it’s probably more like they know what they have more than we do. We might like to think that all the parts are in place before the first game, but in BB especially the season is so long that what a team is like pre-season might not be the character and quality of the team in March.
I very much enjoyed watching PITT play last night, and was proud of the effort they gave, and maybe that’s because I am not so wrapped up in them that I can put some distance in my viewing – unlike watching the train wreck of the second half of the FB season. But, this is a team that looks like it will be very competitive in their games, and will be a fun team to follow as they progress toward the tourneys. I think they will do well.
We go into Big East season already battle tested and we will just improve.
Now we will go into the Dance with a bunch of tough test already behind us.
Remember, December games mean NOTHING. We are going to the Tourney and that is all that matters. This just better prepares us for the ultimate test, March Madness.
Reed, you say “This is what comes from even dreaming of a National Championship instead of grounding expectations in reality.”
But winning a national championship was and still is (I guess) a reality for this year and not just by Pitt fans but nationally Pitt has been talked up as a final four team with depth and experience. This team by all measures should be the real deal. But much like the football team they can never seem to take that elusive “next step”. I am disappointed with how sloppy the play has been and the lack of a leader on the floor – a guy who wants the ball in crunch time (except Gray). But you cant always rely on a big guy especially the way hes going to get hacked. We need someone willing to take the big jumper when the game is on the line. As for Kendall, it is well documented that I’ve never been a fan. With all of his experience he brings very little to the table. It will be interesting to see how this team responds.
I guess its a “shoot for the stars, but be satisfied if you reach the moon” situation – unlike the FB program where a launch off the pad without exploding would be nice.
Not impressed with Kendell either, and after watching him play was surprised when I remembered all the very positive posts about him before the season started. Liked Grey and Cook though.
That may be the analogy of the year, Dave.
I was and am VERY disappointed in the loss. The effort was better than in the Wisconsin game, but it’s frustrating anytime you lose two games in a row…especially when we haven’t really beaten anyone yet. I know they are two ranked teams, but going into the games, we were ranked ahead of both of them. To me, title contenders find a way to win one of those.
I’m not in any way writing the season off – you can’t do that in college basketball as anything can happen in the tournament. But you have to be a little disappointed and look at the WAY they’re losing games….getting outrebounded, missing free throws, silly fouls, etc. Championship teams don’t do that (at least not all in one game).
As someone noted above, this team is better offensively. It looks like with the better offense, the defense and rebounding have suffered a little.
You simply can’t foul as much as they have been – especially when their opponents have been shooting free throws well. They did a better job of getting to the line, but it doesn’t matter if you miss the shots. What did we shoot, like 65-70% from the line? I think they were somewhere around 85% – too big of a difference to make up.
Wisconsin has the talent to be a Final Four team if that Butch kid really steps up like he did against us. But to be honest, I wasn’t all that impressed with Oklahoma State. Near the end of the game and in the OTs, how many offensive rebounds did we give up and how many times did we send them to the line? I know they’re a decent team, but I don’t think they’re a top ten team….then again, maybe neither are we.
yuri you said it yourself, last years “tournament disappointment”. If they met expectations last year they should have advanced past the sweet sixteen. This team should have the same, if not more, expectations.
Pitt may fall out of the top 10 for now, but if we can finish off the non-conference strong and go into Big East on a roll good things will happen.
One positive is the fact that everything we did wrong we can do better. And we learned that Aaron Gray has the ability to win us a game down the stretch. He made some huge plays at the end of the game. Plays that he did not make last year. I really like what I saw out of him.
By the way are you the yuri who played for pitt and was kicked off the team?
Florida 0-1
Duke 0-0
North Carolina 0-0
Ohio State 0-1
Wisconsin 1-0
Okla St. 0-1
UCLA 0-0
Arizona 1-1
Alabama 1-1
Kansas 0-1
Surprisingly Witchita St at 4-0 is the only other top 10 team with multiple road wins.
I don’t want to hear any more comments about Pitt’s depth. Tonight’s loss was like losing a 12-round decision to a one-handed boxer. The Cowboys have seven scholarship players.
Two of them played a large portion of the game in foul trouble and two more were bothered by injuries that forced them to leave the game at one point. Pitt didn’t take advantage of this obvious advantage.
Kendall is a non-factor on offense and can’t play defense without fouling. Biggs has gone dark after showing some early-season confidence on the offensive end of the floor. He’s a liability on defense.
Fields played relatively well and Graves was a factor despite the bad foul at the end. Gray is still under the weather but had another solid night.
Cook is the real deal on offense. He needs to step it up on defense, but you could say that for the entire Pitt team at the moment.
Young may make some youth-related mistakes, but you can’t deny his enthusiasm and tenacity. It’s time to sit Kendall and start Sam.
And where was Ramon? In a back-and-forth game like that it would have been nice to see him in there knocking down a few threes to give us some separation. Perhaps even make a free throw or two to keep the game from going to overtime.
No shame in losing to Wisconsin and Oklahoma State on the road, but I expected Pitt to win at least one of these contests
Obviously not the end of the world, but we’ll have to go on a run here soon to keep our collective psyche from getting crushed.
Who knows how long Dixon can keep such a “deep” team together if we continue to lose? Accepting a limited role is easy when you’re winning. Not so much when you’re on the other side of the fence.